


Lion Heart

by LionessRinoaVIII



Series: SMAA Collection [3]
Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Minor Rinoa Heartilly/Squall Leonhart, One Shot, Parent Rinoa Heartilly, Parent Squall Leonhart, seed - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24042292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LionessRinoaVIII/pseuds/LionessRinoaVIII
Summary: Just a companion one shot to Send Me an Angel (can stand alone). Squall celebrates the annual SeeD ball and his daughters graduation. Fluff without plot.
Series: SMAA Collection [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1765453
Kudos: 2





	Lion Heart

Lion Heart

A Send Me an Angel Side Fic

The twinkling lights in the ballroom were dimming as the night drew to a close, and Headmaster Leonhart had somehow managed not to drown his emotions in Champaign. His back was pressed coolly against the wall, and he stood stiff as a board with a melancholic frown as he watched his beautiful girl from across the dancefloor. He was missing Rinoa, who was on bedrest heavy with their third child and home with their son, who had a stomach bug. His wife shared a waltz with him every year, it was her favorite part of Timber Garden’s festivities, and he was feeling her absence as he watched their daughter enjoy the final moments of her adolescence. 

Julia Raine smoothed out the creases in her new SeeD uniform, checking her watch before she shot a sheepish smile at her best friend. “Sorry Autumn, I’ve stayed entirely too long, I’ve gotta split. Dad’s gonna want to be getting back, Noctis was pretty sick when we left. Mom shouldn’t be left with him too long; she can’t get up to check on him.” 

Autumn rolled her hazel eyes and suppressed a laugh. “Ever the girl scout, ain’t ya, Jules?” She teased. Julia was always catching shit for being the responsible one. She stuck her tongue out, calling her friend a meanie before she flipped her a bird with a pristine black fingernail. Autumn gasped in mock offense, and her peals of laughter followed the teen as Julia skipped to greet her father where he stood. 

Squall had seen the display, and he smirked despite the disapproval he forced himself to hold in his eyes. Seventeen years and she still had him wrapped around her finger, it was hard for him to be stern with her. He and Rinoa had gotten so lucky that they had never really needed to be. Julia was a well-behaved child...most of the time. “Bean,” He groaned. “Was that really necessary? Junior classmen are looking for you to set an example.” 

Julia matched his smirk and she placed her hands behind her back as she leaned toward him playfully. “Don’t act like you care, Daddy. You’d have done worse.” 

Squall laughed. She wasn’t wrong. “You’re supposed to be better than me.” Even as he said it, he knew that had been a useless endeavor from the start. She looked up to him almost as much as she idolized her mother. She had always been a daddy’s girl. He fought the urge to pull her into a hug in front of all her friends, and he nodded his head toward the exit. “Come on. I have something I want to give you before we go home.” 

Julia’s blue-grey eyes lit in curiosity, and she trailed along behind him as he headed toward his office. When they arrived in the small quarters, Squall stood firmly before her with his arms behind his back, looking down his nose at her expectantly. She immediately straightened and offered a perfect SeeD salute before her father’s rigid stance softened and he smiled. He placed a gloved hand into his shirt, pulling his Griever necklace forward so she could see it. “I promised you this necklace not long after you were born. I don’t know if it was because it was shiny or just because it was mine, but you had quickly taken to playing with it when I would hold you in my arms.” 

“Daddy.” Julia whispered softly. She and her mother saw a side of Squall that no one else did. He was a hard-ass and a jerk to everyone around him, even her Papa. But Squall had always had a soft gooey side to his personality, reserved for his girls and his girls alone. He was harder on Noctis, but even he got a side of their father that was softer and special. It made her heart clench with affection. 

Squall held a hand up, signifying that he wasn’t done speaking, and shook his head slightly. “But I’ve decided to go back on that promise. I think I’ll give this to your little brother, when he’s a bit older. I want him to have something too, to remember me by, when I’m not around anymore.” 

Julia’s eyes immediately filled with tears. Both of her parents were the pictures of health, but losing them was not something she was willing to entertain. It was hard enough watching Nana and Papa grow into an elderly couple. “Shut up, you’re only thirty-five!” Her pink lips quivered, and Squall reached for her on instinct, as if she were still a child. He took her round face in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead. 

“I’m not going anywhere, baby, for as long as I can. But no one lives forever. You’re a SeeD now, and I have something a little more practical I’d rather give you than a necklace.” He relaxed his loving grip on her, stepping back and gesturing toward the wall furthest from them. Lion Heart was leaned against a metal filing cabinet, and some papers littered the floor, but Julia couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. 

Julia’s dark eyebrows furrowed and she tilted her head to the side as she glanced about the room. “I don’t see anything...unless...” Her heart stuttered in her chest, and when her eyes met her fathers, she knew she’d made the correct assessment. He was...talking about Lion Heart. “B-But...Lion Heart is your favorite...” She stammered. 

“And you’re my favorite daughter. I have other gunblades. I only have one you. Congratulations on your graduation, Cadet Leonhart.” There was a mountain of pride shining in his eyes, and he almost had to bite back tears himself. He didn’t know how she had gotten this big, or where time had gone. She was growing up too fast and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it. It felt like yesterday that Rinoa had pushed her tiny five-pound body into his outstretched arms. He had blinked, and suddenly the days of dancing with her in their crowded living room with her tiny feet atop his, and packing her lunch bags, or carrying her around like a spider monkey on his back...were over. 

“I’m telling Sis you said that.” She teased, though her voice was tight with tears as she spoke. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, and she could tell he’d momentarily forgotten he was about to be a Girl Dad for the second time. She giggled at his awkwardness, and wiped a few stray tears on her sleeves. “You won’t forget about me, will you? When she gets here? You’ll have a new little partner in crime.” Her voice cracked, and Squall had to tear his eyes from her gaze to hold his own composure. 

“You’re full of shit, Julie.” He said with a forced laugh, choking down the lump that had formed in his throat. “Did I forget about you when Noctis was born? No.” 

“Noctis is a boy, that doesn’t count.” She countered gently. 

Squall sighed and walked to the corner of the room where Lion Heart lay. He had been using this gunblade since he’d met her mother all those years ago, and it was still in perfect condition. He had taken excellent care of it. He knelt at her feet and held the weapon out before her like he was handing her the holy grail. “I’m going to love your sister with my whole heart, just as I do you and your brother. But I only have one firstborn, and nothing is ever going to change or diminish that. I love you. And I’m so proud of you.” 

Julia took the gunblade from her father and slid it off to the slide, dropping to her knees and full body tackling him. He let out a surprised grunt as they smacked the floor, but he chuckled as his arms wove around her tightly. She was Rinoa incarnate, that was for sure. “You are just like your mother. Get off me.” Julia didn’t move just yet, savoring the moment as he petted her dark brown hair in a soothing motion. “I’m serious. We need to get going.” 

Julia knew her father was right, and she was really beginning to miss her mom. She wanted to get as many girls nights in with her as she could before her sister made her imminent arrival. She stood and helped her old man to his feet, grinning from ear to ear as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and walked her to the garage.

They slid into Squall’s sleek black ‘79 impala and Squall turned the radio up as he revved the engine. He threw his coat off to allow a little more flexibility, and his daughter followed suit, reaching for the controls and flipping the top down into a convertible. Ever since she was a little girl she’d loved the feeling of the wind in her hair as they sped down the highway, and Squall wasn’t about to deny her that. Tonight was her night.

The car seemed to vibrate with energy as Julia’s childlike laughter filled the night air. Her favorite song was on the radio, and she screamed the lyrics at the top of her lungs as she shivered around the cool wind. It wasn’t a duet, but Squall knew his baby, and she wasn’t going to jam by herself. She prodded her long fingers into his ribs, dodging him as he swatted at her playfully. He frowned heavily as she tugged on his arm and whined, but she could see right through it. His eyes were bleeding affection.

Squall let out a sigh and stared dead ahead at the road before belting out a loud “Girl I didn’t know you could get down like that, Charlie how your angels get down like that?” The squeal of pure bliss that erupted from his daughter was well worth it and he flipped his longish hair back dramatically as they synchronized in a two-part harmony. This wasn’t the first time his Juli-Bean had talked him into something goofy, and if he had his way it wouldn’t be the last. He was more and more like Laguna every day as he aged and his family continued to expand. A pang of sadness hit his heart, knowing that she was…practically an adult now. How much longer would she want moments like this?

He glanced down at his forearm, and a bittersweet smile curled at the corner of his mouth. There was a tiny, shitty little tattoo that had been there for about five years now. Julia loved to draw, and art was like a second passion behind her studies in magic and in the gunblade specialty. Her godfather…being the nutcase that Zell was, had encouraged this by buying her a tattoo gun for her twelfth birthday. No one was going to let a kid practice on them, it was asinine, but she had been so heartbroken that no one trusted her enough to put something on their body that would be there forever. Squall couldn’t handle seeing his girl cry on her birthday, that wasn’t ever something that was going to fly. So now here he was, with a misshapen pink tulip as wobbly and poorly drawn as a tattoo could probably get. And yet, it was a memory from his baby’s childhood, and no matter what it looked like, it was his favorite part of his entire body.

He glanced over at Julia, who was smiling down at her own tulip. She had practiced on herself too, and they had matching flowers in the exact same spot as one another. The rest of the staff at Garden gave him shit every single time they saw it, but he refused to cover it up. It was imperfectly perfect. When she looked back up at him her eyes were full of tears. “I love you, Daddy.”

Damn it, now she was in _her_ feels. Squall reached to ebb a tear from her cheek, and he was about to ask if she wanted to stop off somewhere and get a milkshake when his phone rang. He mouthed an apology, it was her mother. “Noa?”

Julia watched as the color drained from her father’s face, and a goofy smile lit his eyes. “Okay, I’ll tell her. You hang tight, we are on our way.” The apologetic expression he shot her told her everything she needed to know. “I hate to cut this short b-but um…”

“Mom’s in labor, isn’t she?” She laughed and her father nodded. “You better floor it then, Momma spits out babies quicker than an easy bake oven.” Squall burst into painful laughter, flicking Julia in the forehead and rolling his eyes. It was true, though, that Rinoa typically labored pretty fast. Julie was a little traumatized after how quickly her brother decided to come into the world.

Squall didn’t have a good comeback to that, and he turned the radio up to twenty. “Destiny’s Child on the way to pick her up?”

Julia grinned and nuzzled her head lovingly into Squall’s shoulder, squeezing his arm as tightly as she was able. “You got it, Dad.”


End file.
